


Congratulations

by gilesbabe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Slightly OOC for Dean, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6543634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilesbabe/pseuds/gilesbabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was more to Dean's trip to 1944 than he told Sam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Congratulations

“Jess’s dad died.” Sam said suddenly.

Dean’s head lifted up and he frowned. “What?”

“Jess’s dad died,” Sam repeated. “Last Friday.” He was staring at his computer screen. He looked up at Dean and turned the laptop around so Dean could see the article.

Dean looked at the picture, frowning slightly. The man looked a little familiar. He must have seen him at Jess’s funeral, although they had not been introduced. “Something hinky about his death?”

Sam turned the screen back around and glanced through the article. “No, it was a heart attack. He was 70, so not uncommon at that age.”

“Then why are you researching it?” Sam sighed. “I’m not. I had a search engine that looked for her parents’ names; just kind of to keep an eye out in case something did go after them. This is the first time I got a hit.”

“Seventy, huh? That would have made him around forty when Jess was born. Kind of old to be a new father, wasn’t he?”

“According to this, he was married before, but his wife died in a car accident. Jess’s mom was his second wife.” Sam gave a little huff. “His mom had an unusual name. I’m glad they didn’t name Jess after her.”

“That bad?”

“Well, if it hadn’t said that person was his mother, I would have assumed it was his father.”

“Must be a doozy. What is it?”

“Ezra.”

Dean felt a chill run up his spine. “Ezra?”

“Yeah, weird name for a woman.”

“Yeah, weird,” Dean murmured. He gave himself a shake. Couldn’t be. Hesitantly he asked, “Where was he born?”

Sam glanced back through the article. “Dayton, Ohio. July 31st, 1945. Says his dad, Robert Moore, was in the Navy during the war. He must have been a welcome home baby.” Sam scanned on through the article. “His parents owned a tailor shop. Damn, his dad died before he was born, doesn’t say cause of his death. Oh, this is interesting. His middle name was Dean.” Sam glanced up at his brother.

Dean was staring at him, face pale. “What’s wrong?”

Dean shook his head. “Nothing.”

Sam gave him bitchface #33 ‘don’t give me that, I know something's wrong’.

Dean sighed. “I’ve got a headache. Just came out of nowhere.” He rubbed his temples. “I think I’ll go take some aspirin and lay down for a while. See you later.”

He was out of his chair and moving out of the room before Sam could respond. Sam frowned, shrugged, and went back to reading the obituary of Robert Dean Moore.

+++++++++++++++++

Dean closed the door to his room, leaning back and letting his head thump against it. He took a couple of deep breaths them moved to sit on the end of the bed. Closing his eyes he said, “Hey, Cas, I kind of need to ask you a favor? Nothing urgent,” he added quickly, “just if you could drop by when you got a couple of minutes? Thanks.” He flopped back onto the bed, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling. Before he could start to think about that night, there was the faint sound of the flutter of wings, and Castiel appeared at the end of the bed with a panicked look on his face.

“Dean, what’s wrong?”

Dean sighed and sat back up. “Cas, I told you it wasn’t anything urgent.”

Castiel frowned. “Yes, which means that it must be very urgent. You never ask me to ‘drop by’ when it’s convenient. You always demand my immediate help. What is wrong?”

Dean sighed again, dropping his head to stare at the floor. “Do you remember that time I got sent to the past with Chronos?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there was this woman,”

“Dean,” Castiel interrupted, “there is always a woman.” His frowned deepened. “Are you asking me to take you back to visit her?”

Dean looked up indignantly. “Damnit, Cas, it’s not like that. She worked with Eliot Ness. She was his version of Bobby; did all his research and ran a hunters hub. Her cover was that she owned a tailor shop, and she was really good at making clothes. She made me a really nice suit to wear so I wouldn’t look out of place. She was forty or forty-five, somewhere around that age. She was a widow; her husband had been killed during WWII. Her name was Ezra Moore.”

Castiel tilted his head. “Very well, she was not one of your usual one night stands. What is the problem?”

Dean dropped his gaze again. “Sam was just reading an obituary. It was for Jessica’s dad. His name was Robert Dean Moore, and his mother’s name was Ezra Moore.”

“Jessica, the girl he was with in collage?”

“Yeah.”

“So it appears that the woman who helped you when you were in the past was Jessica’s grandmother? That is certainly a strange coincidence, but they do occur. I don’t understand why you are so upset.”

Dean drew another deep breath and looked back up to meet Castiel’s gaze. “Three reasons: 1. Ezra’s husband died during the war, not after it. 2. Her son was born nine months after I was there. 3. His middle name is Dean.”

Castiel blinked, then sat on the bed beside Dean. “You believe he was your son?”

“Yeah.”

Castiel turned his head and looked at Dean in disbelief. “Is there any woman at any age that is exempt from your attentions?”

Dean blushed. “Cas,” he protested, “ **she** propositioned **me**.”

“You did not need to go along with her request.”

“I know, it’s just,” he faltered. “She was so lonely.”

“How did it happen?”

“She had figured out what I needed to do to kill Chronos, and gave me the idea of how to leave a note for Sam so he would know when to do the ritual to pull us both back to this time. She said that we owed her for all her work, and I said something along the lines of ‘you can have whatever you want’, then she kissed me and told me she wanted to have sex. Said that it had been years, with her husband off at the war, then getting the telegram that he had been killed. She had tried to hook up with a couple of local guys, but they were all afraid of Elliot Ness.”

Dean gave a little laugh. “Ness was really protective of her, scared off any guy who he thought was going to try to take advantage of the war widow. Plus I think he was afraid that if she got together with someone she wouldn’t be available to help him out as much as she did.” Dean shook his head. “I’m never going to be able to watch that movie again. The real Elliot Ness was a bit of a jerk.”

Dean shrugged. “He probably thought the same thing about me. Anyway, like I said, she just wanted to be held, wanted the closeness of sex. When I told her that I wasn’t prepared, no condoms, and that I didn’t know where to get them in that time, she said they weren’t necessary. She said that she was starting menopause, and that she hadn’t had a period in over three months, so she couldn’t get pregnant.”

“That is a common misunderstanding. Menopause can last for many years, and women frequently get pregnant during the beginning stages.”

“Yeah, well. We didn’t have a lot of time, I needed to get back to where Ness was watching Chronos, so we just did it the one time, and not a lot of foreplay.” Dean smiled gently. “She was a classy lady. It was a little awkward, with the age differences and all, but it was fun and I don’t regret that it happened. I only regret that I may have left her alone to face having a baby by herself in that time period. I know from things I’ve read that people could be pretty cruel to women having kids out of wedlock back then. Everyone knew she was a widow; it would have been hard for her.”

“What is it that you want me to do, Dean?”

“Is there any way, without going to the past, to find out if he was mine?”

Castiel reached up and grabbed a single strand of Dean’s hair. “Where did he live?”

“I don’t know. Sam just read some of the obituary out loud. I guess he could tell you, but don’t say anything about this to him. If I’m wrong and she did hook up with someone else just after I left, there would be no reason for Sam to know about what happened.”

Castiel nodded, and with the whisper of wings, disappeared. Dean flopped back on the bed and resumed staring at the ceiling.

+++++++++++++++++

Castiel moved back in time a few minutes, going out to the library and observed as Sam read the obituary on the laptop. He noted the date, time and place of death, then moved a little further back in time to land in the hospital room of the dying man. He examined the face closely, looking for any resemblance to Dean. The nose and the mouth were similar, but it was when the man opened his eyes, and Castiel saw the same brilliant green that he knew without further doubt that this was Dean’s son.

The man looked at him. “Well, I guess that answers that question. Are you going to be my escort?”

Castiel blinked at him in surprise. “You can see me?”

“Of course I can,” and there was Dean’s smile. Cocky and full of mischief. “I am dying, right? I’ve been expecting you.”

Before Castiel could answer, a young woman with dark hair appeared next to him.

“Hello, Castiel, what are you doing here?”

“Hello, Tessa. I came to get a strand of this gentleman’s hair. I need it to compare it with someone else to see if they are related.”

Tessa glanced at the man in the bed, noticed his eyes, and his smile. She looked at Castiel, startled. “He is a Winchester?” she asked.

“Possibly.”

“Do you have the other hair with you?”

Castiel held them out to the reaper. Tessa closed her fingers around the hair, her eyes closed in concentration. She drew in a deep breath, and there was a stir in the air next to her as a thin man in black appeared.

“Well, this is quite the surprise.” He held out his hand and Tessa handed the hairs to him.

The man in the bed gave a little huff. “Excuse me, but isn’t someone supposed to be paying attention to me?”

“So impudent. Thinks the universe revolves around him.” Death rolled his eyes. “Just like his father.” He turned and gave Castiel a look. “And isn’t **that** an interesting turn of events? I had thought that there was nothing else that Dean Winchester could do that would surprise me.”

Death turned back to the young woman. “Tessa, if you would be so good as to escort this gentleman to his final destination?”

Tessa walked over to the bed and placed her hand on Robert’s forehead. His eyes closed, he drew one last breath, and then a ghostly figure appeared next to Tessa. He gave Castiel and Death a wink and a grin, then the two disappeared in a flash of light.

Death looked at Castiel. “How did this happen?”

“Three years ago, while investigating some unusual deaths in Ohio, Dean and Sam ran into Chronos. Dean accidently accompanied him back in time to 1944. Apparently this was the result of an encounter Dean had while in that time period.”

“Are you aware of who he was?”

Castiel took a deep breath, then nodded. “He was the father of the young woman that Sam was involved with. The one that the demons killed to get Sam back into hunting.”

“Is it possible that some of your brothers were responsible for this?”

“No, this occurred shortly after I ingested the Purgatory souls. Heaven was in no condition to be concerned with anything on Earth.”

“Since you are here, am I to assume that Dean is aware of this?”

“He is now. Sam read the obituary to him in three days’ time. He asked me if there was some way that I could check to see if Robert was his son.”

Death gave a small smile. “Ah, yes. Sam. What was his reaction to all of this?”

“He doesn’t know yet.”

Death shook his head. “In all of time and creation there are no two souls that have caused me more problems than Dean and Sam Winchester.” He raised his cane and pointed it at Castiel. “Give Dean my regards, and tell him that I don’t want to see him any time soon.” He turned and walked out of the hospital room.

Castiel stood still for several seconds, then waved his hand to allow the machines in the room to sound their alarms, and with the sound of fluttering wings moved back through time to Dean’s side.

+++++++++++++++++

Sam reread the obituary of the man who should have been his father-in-law. There was something about it that was triggering an alarm in his brain. He frowned slightly. Not an alarm, not really, but there was something.

He scanned the article again. There. Ezra Moore. There was something about that name, and not just the way that Dean had reacted to it. Although that had been strange too. Ezra Moore. Dayton Ohio. 1945. Sam got up from the chair and headed for the archive room.

Not 1945. Dayton, Ohio in 1944. That was when Dean had traveled back in time and met Elliot Ness. Sam remembered finding a file on Elliot Ness in the Men of Letters file, and he had started to read it, but had been interrupted by Kevin. He had seen the name of Ness’ version of Bobby, Ezra Moore, and had assumed that it was a man. Then the whole mess with the trials had happened and he had never gotten back to the file.

Walking into the archives he headed for the ‘N’ section, then turned and went straight to the ‘M’ files. See if they had anything on Ezra Moore other than what was in Ness’ file. Flipping through the drawer he found a folder marked ‘Moore, E’ and he pulled it out. In the folder was a manila envelope and a memo. The memo stated that a letter had been received on September 1st 1945, that involved an incident of time travel, and that the letter had been placed, unopened, in the files to be delivered on the requested date.

Sam blinked.

He wasn’t sure that he really wanted to open the envelope, but it had to be something that was about Dean’s trip back in time. He turned and walked back to the library and sat back down at the table, staring at the envelope. He took a deep breath and opened it. Inside was a normal envelope and on the front of it was written: TO: Dean Winchester. DO NOT DELIVER BEFORE January 13, 2012.

Sam dropped the envelope, staring at it in disbelief. He heard a noise and looked up to see Dean standing in the doorway, with Castiel standing behind him. Dean’s eyes were on the envelope and he was so pale that Sam feared he was going to fall down. Sam picked up the envelope and held it out. “This is for you.”

Dean walked over to the table and reached out, hand shaking, to take it. He sat down across from Sam and Castiel stood behind him, hands on his shoulders, as though giving him support. Dean opened the envelope, read the letter, took a deep breath and handed it to Sam.

“You might be interested in this.” Dean closed his eyes and laid his head down on the table.

“Cas, what the hell is going on?” Sam asked.

Castiel looked away. “Read the letter.”

Sam was really worried now. He glanced down at the letter in his hand and started to read.

_**Hey Smoothie,** _

_**Ness told me that you went with Chronos when he made his jump, and I’m hoping that you got to gank him with the stake like you to planned to do and that you are still alive. I’m not really sure how to tell you this, in fact I’m not sure I should be telling you this at all since there is nothing you can do about it, but it looks like you were right. We should have used protection.** _

_**It wasn’t just because I was starting menopause that I thought it wouldn’t be necessary, it was also the fact that Robbie and I had tried for 15 years and I never got pregnant. He told me that he had gotten a girl pregnant in high school, so we figured that the problem had to be with me. Imagine my surprise when the lingering ‘flu’ that I had turned out to be morning sickness.** _

_**I didn’t want to raise a kid in this life, so I helped Ness get another researcher. He cooked up a bunch of papers that said that Robbie made it home and died here from war injuries. Helped me get a new shop in a different part of town, and spread the word about the new war widow needing help getting by with a baby on the way. I didn’t have a bit of trouble.** _

_**Congratulation, it’s a boy. Your son was born a month ago. 6 pounds, 7 ounces, 21 inches long. He’s got your eyes Smoothie. I named him Robert Dean, for his supposed dad and his real dad. At the time I told them to deliver this letter he will be 67 years old and it’s possible he would still be alive. If he is, maybe you could go look him up? I only hope he turns out to be as good a man as you.** _

_**Take care,** _

_**Ezra** _

Sam stared at the letter in disbelief. He read through it again, then looked over at his brother. Dean had lifted his head and was looking at Sam, his face the picture of misery.

“Dean,” he stopped, waving the letter aimlessly in the air. Sam drew a deep breath. “Dean, you had sex with Jess’s grandmother?”

He shook his head, reading the letter again. “Oh, my God! You were Jess’s grandfather!”

“I didn’t know that she was related to Jess! There are thousands of people with the last name of Moore.”

Sam looked at the letter again. “She was starting menopause?” He stared at Dean in disbelief. “Menopause? She was in her fifties? A war widow in her fifties? Dean, I knew you were a horn dog, but to have sex with a woman in her fifties? Have you no shame?”

Dean sat up indignantly. “She was not in her fifties. She was forty-five at the most, and besides, are you saying women can’t have needs or be sexy after a certain age? Yes, she was a war widow. She hadn’t had sex in over five years. She just want a little closeness, a little comfort with someone who wasn’t going to be around to make things difficult for her. **She** approached **me**.” He stood up and starting pacing around the room.

“She was a lady, Sam. A lady who knew what she wanted, and wasn’t afraid of going after it. Ness usually kept a close eye on her, to protect her, but he also scared away any possible chances for her to have a little bit of closeness with someone. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for her to get what she needed.”

Before Sam could say any more Castiel spoke up. “Actually she was forty-three when she gave birth to Robert.” He handed a picture to Dean. “I went to his home and found a photograph album. Here is a picture of them about the time when she wrote the letter.”

Dean looked at the picture. Ezra had lost weight, her face was thinner, but she also looked younger. The smile on her face was incandescent, showing her happiness. She was looking at the baby in her arms, not the camera, and Dean felt tears prickle his eyes.

His son. A child that he had not known about. A child that he didn’t get to raise, to love.

Sam moved up behind him and looked over his shoulder at the picture. “She doesn’t look like she’s in her forties; I would have thought she was around our age. Cute baby. He’s got your nose.”

Castiel nodded. “He had your smile as well.”

Dean looked at him in confusion. “How can you tell? He’s just a baby, and he’s not smiling in this picture.”

“I went back to the hospital just before he died, to get a strand of his hair to compare with yours. I was there when the reaper came for him. He seemed to be more than ready to go to heaven.”

“You saw the reaper take him?”

“Yes, it was the one you call Tessa. Death told her to escort him directly to heaven.”

Sam and Dean both stared at him. “Death was there?” Sam asked.

“He was very interested in seeing why I wanted to meet with that particular soul. He was instantly aware that he was Dean’s son.” Castiel turned to Dean. “He said to give you his regards and that he was not interested in seeing you again for some time.”

Castiel reached into an inner pocket and pulled out another picture. “This picture was taken when Jessica graduated high school. As you can see, his features were more like his mother, but if you knew to look, you could see a resemblance to Dean.”

Dean and Sam looked at the picture, then Dean remarked, “The first time I saw her I thought she looked a bit like Mom. Guess we know why.”

Sam shuddered. “Dude, don’t even go there. If nothing had happened to her, I would have been marrying my own niece.”

Dean gave a weak chuckle. Sam looked at him in concern. “Dean, are you okay?”

Dean shrugged. “Not yet, but I will be. It’s a shock, but then what in our lives have ever been normal?” He sighed. “I just wish we had found out in time for me get to talk to him. I hardly remember him at Jess’s funeral, I was too busy worrying about you.”

“Yeah, that was a bad time, I don’t remember much of that day either. I never saw her parents before that day. We had planned to go to their house for Thanksgiving, I was going to meet them then.”

Castiel stepped between them. “If I may?” He placed two fingers on the forehead of each man. The memory of Castiel’s interactions in Roberts’ hospital room flashed through their minds.

When Castiel pulled his hand away, Dean opened his eyes. They were bright with unshed tears, but Dean was smiling. “Thanks, Cas.” He held up the two pictures. “Do you need to take these back right away?”

“No, those are copies that I created for you. In fact,” a photo album appeared in his hand, “I copied all of them for you, if you are interested.”

Dean took the album, and turned to pick the letter up from the table. Holding them close against his chest, he looked down at the floor. “I, uh, I’m going to my room. See you in the morning, Sam. Night, Cas.” He headed down the hall.

Sam listened to his brothers' footsteps, and heard a door open and then close. Sam turned to Castiel. “Cas,” he began, paused.

Castiel nodded. “I will watch over him tonight. His dreams will be pleasant ones.”

“Thanks, Cas.”

Castiel nodded again, and with the sound of wings fluttering, disappeared.


End file.
